Heart Attacks and VT

[BOXOFFICEBABE]

Hi, My husband has had 4 Heart attacks due to blocked arterys and been admitted to hospital a couple of nights ago with severe chest pains a stress test was done and the test stopped due to VT ( 6 Beats) Can you explain this please.

[itdood]

That's something called non-sustained ventricular tachycardia, or NSVT.   This means the heart beats were originating in the ventricles.  These are called premature ventricular contractions or PVCs.  anything > 3 PVCs in a row and lasting < 30 seconds is called NSVT or ventricular tachycardia.

There's a ton of other information that can be read into the NSVT, like how fast it was, what part of the heart did it originate from, was it coming from more than 1 spot....that can be used to further diagnose.

Since he's had 4 MIs, the NSVT might be considered dangerous, as the NSVT can lead to more dangerous rhythms like longer lasting v-tach then to v-fib.  They might want to further assess him for an implantable cardiac defibrillator or ICD.

[kenkeith]

The exercise stress test is a useful screening tool for the detection of significant coronary artery disease. The test will be terminated if there is uncontrolled sustained ventricular arrhythmias, symptomatic supraventricular arrhythmias or high-grade block.

Apparently, the test triggered irregular heartbeats and to continued the test would be putting your husband at risk for a serious heart event.